Suffering from depression, the shooter in the tragic standoff in the San Fernando Valley this month that left five dead had asked his family for medical help and was receiving treatment, his brother said at a news conference Tuesday.

Edwin Rivera, 20, shot his father, Gerardo Rivera, and two of his older brothers, Endi and Edgar, inside his Welby Way home in the Winnetka neighborhood Feb. 7.

During a standoff with police and ensuing shootout, Officer Randal Simmons became the Los Angeles Police Department’s first SWAT officer killed in the line of duty.

Edwin Rivera was later shot and killed by a police sniper on his front lawn as he attempted to flee the house, which had caught fire, apparently from police flash-bang grenades.

Holding up a high school diploma bearing his brother’s name, Wilfredo Rivera – the only surviving member of his family – said his youngest brother Edwin was neither a gangster nor a loser nor a high school dropout.

He still has no answers about his brother’s fatal outburst or even a possible explanation or motive. But he said he wanted to extend his condolences to the families of Officer Simmons and Officer James Veenstra, who was also shot and critically wounded during the standoff.

“The family is at a loss,” Rivera said, as he recalled spending Super Bowl Sunday with his three brothers, never imagining that would be the last time he would see them alive.

“We have no way of explaining why this terrible event occurred that not only resulted in the loss of our four beloved family members but also in the loss of a police officer, causing so much grief and devastation.”

But he said in the months preceding Edwin Rivera’s violent attack, the young man had shown signs of depression, became reclusive, stopped working – and reached out for help.

“He called me one night and said, `Can you please take me to the hospital?”‘ Wilfredo Rivera said.

“I wasn’t sure what was wrong. He didn’t want to tell me what was wrong. But as we drove, he told me it was depression.”

Rivera said he took his brother to Olive View Hospital that night and, after waiting several hours, Edwin Rivera was given an appointment to see a psychiatric counselor.

Wilfredo Rivera said that was the only time he took his brother to a doctor for his mental issues, but other relatives told him his brother was receiving medical help and medication.

Carla Ni o, a spokeswoman for Olive View Hospital, said because of confidentiality policies, she could neither confirm nor deny that Edwin Rivera was treated at the hospital.

But Ni o said that if Rivera had been seen at the hospital, he would have been released after an evaluation and given a referral for treatment at an outpatient facility.

“It is up to the patient if they comply,” Ni o said.

LAPD officials said at a recent news conference that Edwin Rivera had begun to show “significant mental health problems” after the death of his mother nine years ago. But Wilfredo Rivera said that wasn’t the case.

“When my mother died, we were all affected, but we banded together like a family to get through it,” he said.

Fighting back tears, Rivera said he is anxiously awaiting more information from police as they continue to investigate the incident.

“I really want to listen,” Rivera said, talking about the 911 tape of his brother calling police. Officials have said Edwin Rivera told a dispatcher he had killed family members and police should come and get him.

For now, he said, his biggest concern is to hold on to his family’s assets – his father’s small business, what remains of the family’s home and a Palmdale property that his two younger brothers purchased three months ago.

“These things are their hard work.” he said. “It’s all I have of them.”